Before long, the 23-year-old media worker felt overwhelmed by anxiety and depression. “I didn’t have private lessons at the time and it was easy to have anxious thoughts when you stayed at home a lot,” Cheryl, who asked to be identified only by her first name, told Al Jazeera. After learning about cannabidiol (CBD) during a research project at university, Cheryl ordered a tincture from an online store that sells products with advertised health benefits, including reduced anxiety and stress. “I started using CBD tincture,” he said. “My thoughts were like waves crashing over me, but suddenly it calmed down.” CBD is a compound found in hemp that does not contain THC, the psychoactive ingredient responsible for the drug’s high. In Hong Kong, CBD has been sold legally in the form of oils, tinctures and food and drinks, amid a boom in related businesses in recent years. Cheryl is now a regular CBD user, spending several hundred dollars each month on products to improve her mood. CBD users like Cheryl, however, may soon be forced to find other outlets for their stress, as the Chinese-ruled city looks set to ban the compound as early as this year. CBD is sold legally in Hong Kong in the form of oils, tinctures, and food and beverages [Courtesy of Altum International] In June, the government of Hong Kong, which is nominally semi-autonomous from mainland China under a system known as “one country, two systems,” unveiled a draft law to ban the manufacture, import, export, sale and possession of CBD products. . The bill came after Beijing announced a ban on cosmetics containing CBD last year. After an electoral overhaul by Beijing last year that virtually eliminated all political opposition in Hong Kong’s legislature, there is little chance the bill will fail to become law. Hong Kong officials have argued that CBD can break down into THC under “normal storage conditions” and could become a gateway for young people to take illegal drugs. Authorities also say more than a third of the roughly 4,000 CBD samples tested contained traces of THC. Meanwhile, officials say illegal drug use is becoming more prevalent in the city. The number of known cannabis users in Hong Kong rose by a third between 2020 and 2021, with the number of people under the age of 21 rising by almost 50%, according to police statistics. Hong Kong has strict anti-drug laws, with prison terms of up to seven years for possession and life in prison for production and trafficking.
Business elimination
Aside from informing consumers, Hong Kong’s proposed ban, which would have given anyone in possession of CBD three months to dispose of the product, has sounded the death knell for the city’s once-thriving CBD business ecosystem. After making headlines with its launch in 2020, the city’s first CBD cafe, Found, is now planning to close up shop in October. “The proposed ban would unfortunately result in the closure of the retail store and the cafe,” Fiachra Mullen, head of marketing at Altum International, owner of Found, told Al Jazeera. “Altum will focus on our other primary markets in Australia and New Zealand.” Mullen said the cafe had met a strong demand in Hong Kong, with business growing about 20-fold since it opened. Office worker Morgan first tried CBD as it began to take off in popularity in 2020. “I used to put CBD drops in my drinks. After that, I started using a CBD vapor to replace my bad nicotine habits… I felt calm and my anxiety was relieved,” Morgan, who asked that only her first name be used, told Al Jazeera. Morgan said while she is no longer a frequent CBD user, she cannot understand the reasoning behind the ban. “Why take away something that helps people feel better emotionally and mentally?” CBD business owners say the government’s claims about their products are impermissible and insist they can guarantee that anything they sell is THC-free. “I am sending the raw materials [of my CBD products] in the UK and Japan for a full check and my products are 100 percent THC-free,” David Lau, an online seller of CBD products, told Al Jazeera. Lau started his business after his friend reported that CBD had reduced his depression and anxiety. He started selling CBD vaping cartridges, but switched to CBD oil and gum after the government banned vaping products. Before the ban was announced, Lau had hoped to open a physical store, but is now considering taking his business elsewhere. Mullen, Found’s marketer, said his company could “effectively guarantee a product completely free of THC at the point of production, as there is no hemp or cannabis involved in the production process.” Experts say more research is needed to examine the effects of CBD products [Courtesy of Altum International] Although several studies suggest that CBD can help with mental health conditions such as anxiety, experts say more research is needed to examine its effects. Fung Sai-fu, a lecturer in the department of social and behavioral sciences at the City University of Hong Kong, said there is no evidence for CBD’s purported benefits. “For research and medical use, the current proposed ban on CBD will not affect research related to hemp compounds and the use of CBD medicinal products. But for the consumer or recreational use of cannabidiol, there is no clear scientific evidence to support CBD with these advertised health benefits,” Fung told Al Jazeera. Fung also said that some studies have shown that CBD users experience side effects, such as sleep problems. “Some doctors have also warned that CBD can interfere with how other drugs work and can be contaminated,” he said. For CBD users like Cheryl, arguments about potential risks or side effects matter little. “The [the proposed ban] It doesn’t make sense… After we grow up, we should be able to make our own decisions,” he said. “Why not ban cigarettes, but CBD? If they want to ban CBD, they should also ban cigarettes.”
